LinkedIn have changed the requirements for CRM applications and are unfortunately disabling our API access. As a result LinkedIn matches will stop appearing in Capsule's social search feature.
LinkedIn notified us that:
"After a review, we believe that your product(s) (Capsule) violates LinkedIn's API Terms of Use. In accordance with Section I.C, you are required to be accepted into a LinkedIn Partner Program in order to use our APIs for applications that are "used for hiring, marketing, or sales."
While we have taken care to follow the terms of use, the requirement for a partnership was introduced after we built our integration with LinkedIn. We applied for the LinkedIn Partner Program at the time and more recently but unfortunately LinkedIn have not offered us a partnership. LinkedIn's only partners in the CRM space are Salesforce and Microsoft Dynamics. LinkedIn now appear to be closing off access to CRM platforms completely as they have recently stated:
"Please note that currently we are not accepting any more CRM partners. We will update this page when we are ready to accept more applications in this program."
We're aware that LinkedIn have sent similar notifications to other CRM applications and so this isn't just a decision against Capsule.
LinkedIn’s decision to close their API’s to CRM applications is deeply disappointing. We are very grateful that for the most part the web is open as we are able to integrate interesting and useful services into Capsule. The LinkedIn integration we built in Capsule made it simple for users to locate their contacts on LinkedIn (via the public URL) and connect with them using the LinkedIn platform. LinkedIn’s decision to close our access seems counter intuitive if LinkedIn are interested in making it simple for their users to engage with the LinkedIn platform. We encourage LinkedIn to reconsider this decision.
We are exploring alternative ways to a offer similar capability outside of the LinkedIn API and expect to have something to share on this soon.
